men were later billeted.
On November 7, while the 5th Division was engaged in operations which resulted in the capture
of Côte Saint Germain, a formidable height east of Sassey, patrols from the 1st Battalion, 357th Infantry,
crossed at Sassey and went about two kilometers north along the river. Due to the advances on the east
bank, the enemy were evacuating the lowlands between the river and the canal. This patrol also
established a post in a stone building about 750 meters southeast of Sassey, in the angle formed by the
canal and a bend in the river. During the night a detachment from the 5th Division came up to this point
and a joint post was established.
A very amusing incident occurred about 5:20 o’clock that afternoon. Five ambulances from the
5th Division, which had evidently lost their direction, went too far along the Route Nationale, which
runs north from Dun-sur-Meuse to Stenay, and were captured north of Sassey. The ambulance drivers’
plight was observed by Lieutenant R. H. Peake, Company C, 357th Infantry, who was inspecting his
outposts, and also by an engineer officer of the 32d Division, who had begun work about noon that day
repairing the Sassey bridge. Prompt action by these two officers, operating on both sides of the
roadway, succeeded in recapturing the ambulances. Four Germans, with three light machine guns, were
also captured and sent back to the 5th Division in the ambulances under guard of two men from
Company C.
On November 7 the Division received orders to organize its sector for defense. Division orders
were accordingly issued, stating that the 179th Brigade would hold the outpost line along the Meuse and
the main line of resistance along the heights from Halles to the Meuse. The 180th Brigade continued in
reserve. This brigade had followed up the advance on November 3, the troops of the 359th Infantry
going into barracks south of Montigny, and the 360th Infantry bivouacking in the Bois de Montigny.
The brigade P. C. was at Villers-devant-Dun, the 359th P. C. at Montigny, and the 360th at St. Marie
Farm, the second farm of that name to play a part in the Division’s history.
The physical condition of the men of the 360th Infantry was very serious at this time. The
physical strain of the severe fighting in piercing the Freya Stellung; the damp, unhealthy surroundings in
which they found themselves in the Bois de Montigny, without sufficient blankets or overcoats, as all
packs had not yet been brought up; impure water and cold meals at uncertain hours – these were some of
the circumstances which made nearly forty per cent of the regiment victims of diarrhea, and twenty per
cent, patients with sub-acute bronchitis. In view of these conditions, it was decided to put the men in
better billets. The morning of November 7 they marched to billets as follows: Regimental P. C. and 3d
Battalion, Andevanne; 1st Battalion, Villers-devant-Dun; and 2d Battalion, Bantheville.
The shelling of Montigny with long-range guns during the day of the 8th pointed to the
withdrawal of the enemy light artillery. This seemed to indicate that he was retiring to another position
further to the rear. Accordingly, all troops were kept on the alert, and patrolling was very vigorous.
One patrol from the 357th Infantry reached the outskirts of Mouzay and another got to a point south of
the Bois de Lion, both patrols encountering machine gun fire at several points.
On the morning of November 9 reports definitely indicated that the Germans had withdrawn and
halted on a line connecting the heights two kilometers east of Stenay and the heights north of Baalon.
The moment had come to take up the pursuit.
The reason for all the delay was now beginning to become evident. The first goal of the Meuse-
Argonne offensive was to cut the railway – Metz-Montmédy-Sedan-Mézi
res-Lille. This had been
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